July 27, 2010: I'm Jammin'

So....what do you do when your neighbor lets her peaches ripen and fall to the ground, because she doesn't want to deal with them? They were too bruised for canning or fresh eating, so I made jam.

Bruised peaches, waiting to be used. Since they were from the neighbor's tree, the 8-1/2 pounds won't be counted in my harvest total.

Seven pints and eight half-pints of peach jam, six half-pints and a tiny jar of hot pepper jelly were made this morning.

Since I already had a mess in the kitchen, I got out all those green peppers I'd picked the other day, ran to the store for some jalapenos, and made hot pepper jelly. I cleaned and chopped my peppers, then donned rubber gloves and tackled the hot peppers. After I'd cleaned a couple of them, I noticed my eyes weren't tearing up, I wasn't choking, and my nose wasn't running. I tentatively took a small bite of jalapeno, and those things were as sweet as my bell peppers! I chewed on a seed....nothing! How upsetting. That's how my home grown ones were last summer, but you'd think commercially grown ones would be hot. I ended up having to add hot pepper flakes to the jelly, and I wasn't sure just how much to use. One and a half tablespoons might have been overdoing it, ya think? I tasted it, and it was muy caliente. It will get hotter as it ages. Oh well, I'd rather have it too hot than too mild.

After I finished the jam, I went back over to Pat's and picked another 5 pounds of peaches so we can have a fresh peach pie for our dinner. I got these off the tree, so they weren't so bruised, but there are a lot of them on the ground yet. What a waste, but we won't need more jam than I've already made.

27 comments:

Oh the peaches going to waste?? Glad you were able to make use of them! I've never made pepper jelly, what do you use it with? Toast or a dish? Just curious :) And it never occured to me to test my jalapenos...now I will! Thanks for the tip!

Apple Pie Gal, it's usually used on crackers, with cream cheese, as a snack. I like it plain on those butter or club crackers. I think some use it heated as a sauce on pork or chicken, but I've not tried it that way. I think it's an acquired taste. The first time I tried it I wasn't impressed, but then I got hooked. All my kids love it, Mr. Granny won't even try it (of course). I have to make quite a bit each year to keep the kids and my neighbor, Pat, supplied with it. The recipe is in all the pectin boxes, and is also called hot pepper relish (Sure Jell). It's just finely ground up bell peppers, jalapenos, vinegar, sugar and pectin. I used green peppers with this batch, but if I get red peppers later on, I'll make some with those and red jalapenos.

********Erin, can you believe those store peppers weren't hot? I should have gone down to the Mexican market. They would never carry mild jalapenos!

********Ribbit, if someone would hold the ladder, I'd go to the top for some really good ones. Most of the low branches have been picked clean. The birds have taken a toll on them, too.

Granny, I have found that buying any hot pepper from the store is always hit or miss! Especially when you don't live in a border state like TX! That is where I found the best store bought peppers. But here in KY, ha! Rarely hot!

Shawn Ann, this is the first time I've ever bought any that weren't hot. And these were 98-cents a pound. Fiesta Foods always has good (hot) ones for 59-cents a pound, which hardly makes them worth growing at home. Like their 39-cents a bunch cilantro.

I cannot wait until my peach tree produces peaches like your neighbors! I can't believe they had all those on the ground! I love peaches, I'd be eating them everyday!! I never had pepper jelly before, it sounds yummy.

********Meemsnyc, I do wish I'd had access to that tree while the peaches were still good enough for canning. She told me to come pick yesterday, but it was 103F out there, so I decided to wait until this morning. Then I got involved in getting the jam made. By the time I got over there, someone else had picked most of the fruit.

Granny, the vision of you sneaking around the grocery store doing taste tastes of peppers is just hilarious. "But officer, I really NEED a hot pepper!"

If I lived next door to you (the opposite side of your Pat's), I would totally beg you for a taste of your peach jam and pepper jelly, in exchange for holding the ladder for you so you can get more peaches from the top of the tree.

Thyme2, it would be totally awesome if you lived next door one side, Erin on the other, Ribbit upstairs, Thomas in the basement, Daphne in the garden shed.......etc., etc., LOL, I think we need to start a commune!

Granny, thanks for the great links you left on my blog. I looked at the possibilities, I think fall crops will only be beans, peas, and lettuce for us! Do you post your jam recipes? I'm drooling over this!!

Meemsnyc, you're welcome! As to the jam recipes, just go to the store and pick up a package of pectin. Sure-Jell, MCP, Ball. Powdered or liquid, doesn't matter. They'll all have a recipe page inside, and that's what I follow. I buy whichever pectin has the best price.

Lucky you!!!!! There's a house down the street that let their fall pears rot on the ground...how upsetting! There's another house that does the same with their chestnuts. Do people forget that those things go for 5 bucks a pound a the supermarket?

I need to get back on the jamming band wagon.

Sorry to hear the jalapenos. I picked some the other day and boy were they hot!!!!!!!!!!!!! MUCH hotter than what you find in the supermarket.

Hmm I suppose I could join your commune if the shed I'm stuck in is the garden shed. Though if I have to share it with a smelly lawnmower though, I'm out.

I would so love to have a neighbor that doesn't want her peaches. Oh how I wish. I was visiting my husbands family a week ago and my SIL had made the yummiest peachy blueberry jam. I really need peaches and blueberries so I can have more.

Nice that you could glean those peaches from your neighbor. Don't you just love the final pictures of the jars of produce? I could look at them all day. Do you have a special pepper jelly recipe? I'm thinking of making some this year for the first time, and would just look on the internet for a recipe. Have you made it before? Thanks!~~Lori

Lori, I put the recipe in today's blog. I have made it before, we really like it. I'm quite sure it's the same recipe I used last year, and we ate it all long ago!

Last year I dragged out all my home canned produce and put it all on the counter for a photo for my blog. It actually took 2-3 pictures to get it all in, but it was fun seeing just how much was accomplished!